equipping a workshop from the ground up

Workbench. Build it yourself for $200.

A good vise. $100

A good (Smith, Victor or Harris) Acetylene torch. $500 for the torch and tanks.

Floor jack or bottle jack. $50

A good 3/8 drill motor. $100

Misc hand tools, including hammers, punches, chisels, screwdrivers, pliers, files, small and large vise grips. $250.

Which leaves $300 for a welder, compressor or cherry picker.

To work on tractors, sooner or later you'll need 3/4" drive sockets. I buy mine one at a time when I need them.

A small angle grinder is nearly indispensable.

Sooner or later you'll buy an air compressor. (Probably sooner.)

Many of the things you'll need you can borrow when you need them if you have an understanding brother-in-law.

Don't put off buying a torch because of the cost. You'll quickly find out that you can't dismantle these old machines without breaking something if you don't have some heat.

"A completely equipped shop" is pretty open ended, and you can easily spend 10 times your budget, as folks stated below.

"Enough tools to rebuild an old tractor" is a whole other situation. If you shop carefully, you should be able to get pretty well set up for $1500.

A good selection of sockets and hand wrenches is obviously critical. I just started as a mechanic at an equipment rental place, and took most of my tools to work. I've been restocking the home toolbox by shopping at Walmart and Home Depot. Don't laugh, you can get some good tools at Walmart at decent prices. I've gotten good sets of 3/8 and 1/2 drive Stanley sockets both standard and metric in deep well and regular, with ratchets and extensions, and spent less than $100, by catching them on sale.

You can save a few bucks by starting with the 1/2" sockets only. You'll need the heavier ones, the 3/8 are lighter and easier to use, but except on rare occasions where access is a problem, you can do everything with the 1/2". A long flex bar is handy for the really tight fasteners. 2 foot minimum, 3 foot is better.

Good combination wrenches, preferably 2 sets so you have one for the bolt and one for the nut when needed. Stanley or Husky are decent quality and very reasonable.

A good set of screwdrivers. Again, Stanley.

Vise grips in a couple of sizes

A GOOD adjustable wrench. No K Mart stuff here, you need to be able to put some grunt behind it without it slipping.

An impact wrench. If you can work in an air compressor get an air drive, if not, a good electric will do a lot of work for you.

Center punch, pin punches, drift punches, a big brass punch, a big ball pein or 3 pound machinists hammer.

An oxy/acetylene torch is darn near indispensable, but expensive.

You should be able to get most of that for your $1500 easily enough. Until your budget improves you can rent cherry pickers and engine stands and such.

Good luck, and have fun!

First of all, farm out your engine work. Those tools cost too much and they have to be good quality. I've got 4 times that in engine tools alone and I don't do most of my own engines.

I would want a good set of wrenches and sockets 3/8 and 1/2" drive. Plus a breaking bar up to 1-1/4". Good screw drivers, Allen wrenches and GOOD punches and drifts. (figure that $500 will get you a good set of Craftsman stuff if you watch the sales). Drill and drop cord plus good bits ($100). A floor jack and a set of stands (I use Harbor Freight brand) ($200). Good set of oxy acetylene torches (I like Victor, get the weldng tips, can weld and braze with these)($500 including buying your own tanks) Air compressor, DA sander, air grinder, and paint gun ($650). I would stock in that order, this runs a little more than your budget. If funds would allow hiring a welder he bring in his tanks I would get the compressor first. This to me would be bare bones stuff. I made do with a bunch of things (like using my a/c compressor on my truck and an air tank as a compressor to paint my first hay rake.

seriously...

depending on where the engine is.... a cherry picker... don't buy cheap... 460s weigh in excess of 750#... buy substantial

engine stand... same as above... I've heard of 460s bending cheap stands down to the ground

a good clicker type torque wrench with at least 150 ft lbs

of course a complete set of sockets/ratchets and wrenches..

are you doing your own engine work ?? probably not... but a accurate set of mics, calipers, snap gauges will give you initial measurements..
a dial indicator and a stand for spanning cylinder holes for measuring clearance of the dome.

die grinders and carbide bits for hogging out the exhaust ports and match grinding the ports to the gaskets.

ring compressors and valve spring compressors (if you're doing your own head work)

a drip pan under the engine stand...

air compressor and air ratchets, impact wrench and sockets...

more later... my head is tired..

John

having had a repair shop and machine shop for many years I agree with you . I really think
he needs to add a zero to the end of his budget and multiply by 3 or 4 , that will get you started
in the repair business . You can put 10 or 15,000 in one roller cabinet . The one thing I would not
waste money on is a click type torque wrench , any even junk beam wrenches are as accurate or more so
than a click , dial reading come in a close second
and click last. Have checked many on a torque wrench checker , never found a beam that was wrong
, rarely ever find an accurate click type .Clicks were designed to use when you can't see to read a beam or dial type .

george

Are you talking ANY clicker type torque wrenches? I have two Snap-Ons(1/2"dr and 3/8"dr) and the 3/8" isn't that old but has always ben good to me. The 1/2" has got to be over 20 years old I think and when I built the engine for my pickup I checked it with GM's digital torque/angle meter and it would click as soon as the meter said I had hit the correct torque. It's never been calibrated as far as I know(Snap-On wants $50 to do it) but I feel that it has got to be within 1-2lbs.

george